About Me
Members Doug Walter, Larry Lawless, and producer Dan Armstrong met as students in the percussion department of the University of North Texas (then, North Texas State University) where Doug was in the famed One O'Clock Lab Band, Larry was in the top Concert Band, and Dan was in the Orchestra. Over the years, although spread by many miles, they have all been deeply involved in music education. Doug now teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Larry at Stephenville, Texas, High School (formerly at Tarleton State University) and Dan at Penn State University. Rich MacDonald was recommended by mutual friend Dan Lidster of Encore Mallets, and happens to be a UNT grad also, playing in the Two O'Clock there. He now teaches at Winona State University in Minnesota. Bart Elliott, also a Texas percussion graduate (West Texas A&M University) now is a studio drummer/percussionist in Nashville. He and Larry met as a result of his online community, the DrummerCafe. David Bugher, the young gun of the group, was a student of Doug's at Colorado, now teaches in Florida.Larry pulled this group together as a dream project, the concept of a jazz album written for and performed entirely on instruments of the percussion family. The main melodic and harmonic instruments are the classic jazz instrument, the vibraphone, as well as one more usually seen in the concert hall, the marimba. The bass line was provided either by the low end of the 5 octave marimba, or with an electronic midi controller that is played like a mallet instrument, called a MalletKat. Add the standard drum set and a variety of percussion instruments such as conga, shakers, log drums, crotales, and you get the rich variety of textures this combination provides.Each member of the group, besides being top performers on their instruments, are also composers. Thus, each provided 2 original jazz compositions written just for this project. The parts were emailed, and the group was assembled by telephone, email, and snail mail communication. When the time came, we met on the campus of the University of Colorado for a week long recording session. Although there were individual connections (such as Doug and Rich having played a show of the Ice Capades together), no one, not even founder Larry, knew all 5 members before the recording. With amazing professionalism, they bonded quickly into a cohesive ensemble, and at the end of the week, a 10 song CD was in the can.After extensive post-production work by coorespondance, the finished product, "Jazz Behind Bars" is now available on the band website, www.lawlesspercussion.com.
